About the Newly Established International Center

By the Center Director
Prof. Sadanari Mochizuki,Dr.
Mechanical Systems Engineering

Along with advancing globalization, difficult issues facing the world as a community are increasing. Addressing many of them will require action taken from a global perspective. It is against this backdrop that the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has recently established an International Center to add impetus and depth to its international programs and initiatives.

The new center will coordinate and integrate the university’s existing international activities while investing them with new functions and dimensions. In short, it will serve as a hub for strengthening and advancing the university’s campus-wide international program. In this capacity, the center will handle all the university’s activities that come under the heading “international,” including its internationalization strategy, the collection and dissemination of international exchange-related information, support for international scientific research activities, promotion of international university-industry-government collaborative projects, provision of Japanese language education both on and off campus, and support for international exchange students.

With an eye to strengthening the university’s international competitiveness, the center will (1) work to enhance the university’s international prestige by ascertaining and compiling the fruits of its faculty’s research of high global significance or interest; (2) provide an educational curriculum and environment (e.g., English instruction) of an international standard appealing to overseas as well Japanese students; and (3) create friendly interpersonal networks between Japanese and talented overseas members of the student body through the university’s educational programs.

In this connection, TUAT has already concluded cooperative agreements with 67 universities in 28 countries around the world. At present, 431 students from those countries are enrolled in courses at TUAT. As such, they make up 7% of the student body. This is a fairly high ratio given an average of 3.2% among Japan’s institutions of higher education. To improve the quality of its overseas students, the university needs now to take proactive steps to enhance its institutional appeal while disseminating more widely the benefits it offers excellent international students. In these ways, the center will do all in its power to attract and support students from abroad, while, at the same time, working to provide a rich variety of overseas educational opportunities that will help foster Japanese students who can go on to play active roles in international society.

As this new organization embarks upon its important mission, all the members of the staff are eager and committed to shouldering the center’s central role in advancing TUAT’s internationalization agenda. Please hold high expectations in the new International Center; we will work hard to meet them.